12.11.04: "Henry asked me where I saw myself playing next year, and I told him in Pawtucket. But he told me to go to spring training with the idea that I would be able to be the regular shortstop at Fenway. I smiled nervously and was moved by those words." -- Red Sox SS Hanley Ramires to ESPN Deportes

Scalpers Intimidate and Muscle In On Ice-Rain CampersCrooks Cut Lines with No Problem, No Red Sox RepercussionsSome Fans Camp for 3 Days, While Online Savvy Crowd Got All Tix/Pax in 3 Seconds Flat"Magic Links" Take a Carpet Ride All Over the Internet, Sold on CraigslistWhile Virtual Waiting Room is Dead Fan Walking, Other Idiots in Phone PurgatoryTickets on sale for up to 8 Times Face on eBay in SecondsSame Old Song and Dance for Cardless, Computerless Members of NationMLB.com Investigates and Breaks it All Down for the Fans

No Poke BluffsWelcome to Edgartown

Sox on Verge of Signing Renteria(Theo met with Edgar agents Meister and Lane at 5:30 PST)

Be careful what you pretend to be because
you are what you pretend to be– Kurt Vonnegut

Most of us, Red Sox Nation, card-carrying
or not, have spent our lives either envying or despising our American League
rivals, the New York Yankees. So many years they either outhit, out pitched,
or out-defended the locals. In our youth Mantle, Maris, and Ford played our
antagonists. As we grew, they morphed into Reggie Jackson, Gregg Nettles,
and Goose Gossage, and later the likes of Paul O’Neill, Ramiro Mendoza, and
Bernie Williams became the villains.

Free agency became a
contradiction, as salaries and ticket prices escalated. Franchise prices
became astronomical. While owners decried outrageous payrolls, they
continued to play the fool, bidding up not just the stars, but the price of
mediocrity.

Amidst the folly, pockets of
sanity existed. The Twins won a few championships living within a budget,
and the Marlins and Angels both overcame Yankeebucks to capture the World
Series.

Meanwhile, our Red Sox emulated
what we detested. New ownership came with the determination and the capital
to compete. They understood the need to increase revenue and have developed
NESN into a regional cash cow. Professionally, the organization brought not
only the dollars but the dynamic, quantitative analysis through the eyes of
GM Theo Epstein and Senior Baseball Advisor Bill James to identify the
missing ingredients for championship recipe.

The Sox had never been cursed by
the sale of Babe Ruth or the trade of Sparky Lyle but by the failure to
develop and maintain pitching excellence. While other teams sought or
cultivated power arms, the Sox relied primarily on pitching craft, with guys
like Bill Lee, Rick Wise, and Reggie Cleveland. Strategy and pitch selection
can take you so far in baseball. As Al Capone said in ‘The Untouchables’,
“you can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind
word.” The same applies to baseball, which is why they call it ‘hardball’.

The Cardinals tried to get by
with Woody Williams and Jeff Suppan. Tony LaRussa’s genius
evaporated the way it always had since losing baseball’s real genius, talent.

Theo Epstein recognized the twin
objects of the game are not only run creation, but also run prevention. Opening up the
franchise checkbook, Epstein fought the arm’s race for solutions to both the
front end of the rotation (Schilling) and the back end of the game (Foulke).
With the imminent departure of Derek Lowe, he found a possible solution in
David Wells, while patiently awaiting the development of prospects Alvarez,
Papelbon, and Lester.

The gap between baseball’s haves
and have-nots (small markets) widens continually. Kansas City and Milwaukee
have become the Ethiopia and Somalia of baseball.

Win at any price remains our
mandate. We have tasted the fruits of victory, and we are not satiated.
Celebrate the first baseball championship of Red Sox Nation and spend
megabucks to resign our and other’s baseball mercenaries. A simple truth
emerges. For most of baseball, we too have become what we pretended not to
be -- the Yankees.